Earlier this year, the BGS also released a new digital map of the entire UK that’s aimed at helping planners reduce the risk of urban flooding. The map identifies areas that can act as sustainable drainage systems — or SuDS, as the organization calls them — where rainwater can soak into the ground in the same way as in undeveloped areas.

These drainage systems could include areas like permeable pavements or infiltration basins.

“These SuDS mimic the natural process of rainwater infiltrating into the ground, a process almost entirely removed from our modern ‘concrete jungles,’ ” notes the BGS. “By adopting SuDS, the pressure on underground drainage networks (including sewer systems) is alleviated and so reduces the chance that they will overflow. This decreases the likelihood of floods and pollution impacts on watercourses, caused by overflows to combined sewers that take both sewage and storm water runoff.”